Nn's Next Magnet A Year-round?

Move Would Ease Long Waiting List

October 05, 1999|By STEPHANIE BARRETT Daily Press

NEWPORT NEWS — In two years, Newport News school parents might be able to send their children to school year round.

At a meeting last week, School Board members talked about the idea of expanding magnet programs to more schools, and for the most part, they thought a year-round school would be "the next logical type of magnet," said Mary Oder, board chairwoman.

The waiting lists of students who want to attend Newport News magnet school programs are long, hundreds of names long at some schools, but there hasn't been much talk about creating more programs until now.

Two new schools are scheduled to be built in the next few years. That's two more places where magnet programs can expand. A new middle school is scheduled to open in September 2001 and an elementary school is expected to open in Sept. 2002.

One or both of these schools could house the year- round model, Oder said.

A 1994 parent survey on magnet schools inspired the idea to develop a year-round calendar. The majority of elementary school parents selected that format among their top magnet school choices.

If the board decides to open a year-round school, students would apply to attend just like with the current magnet programs, Oder said. She cautioned, however, that all discussions are still preliminary.

The Hampton school district already has two elementary schools and one middle school on a year-round schedule. This is the second year those schools have had the extended calendar.

Newport News magnet programs started in 1995-1996 to help integrate schools and give parents more choice. They are schools that offer special programs in such areas as math or environmental science and accept applications from all over the city.

By last February's deadline, the district had received more than 4,500 magnet school applications for the 1,000 magnet school seats available.

Each school keeps track of its own waiting list, but school officials said math, science and technology and environmental science magnet programs usually have the longest waiting lists.

Deer Park Elementary School, an environmental science magnet, enrolls more than 500 students, said Linda Thomas, the school's principal. The school grew by about 25 students this year with the help of trailers, she said. But that barely made a dent in the school's waiting list of about 800 students.

Thomas said parents like magnet schools because it gives them a chance to be selective about where their students attend school.

Mary Thomas is one of them. She has 9-year-old son who attends Newsome Park's math, science and technology program. She wanted her 5-year-old son to attend the program, too, this year.

"They were full and there was no where to fit him," she said.

She made phone call after phone call to ensure her son was on the waiting list and moving up. Meanwhile, her son attended the school he was zoned for.

Thomas just recently got notice that her son could attend Newsome Park's traditional magnet program, one that emphasizes leadership, self-discipline, honesty, respect and responsibility. That program wasn't her first choice, but she quickly made the move to transfer her son to Newsome Park.

Choice has a large price tag, Oder said.

That's why school officials aren't rushing to expand the district's magnet program. She provided no figures, but said school officials are looking at what it might cost to add a magnet program.

School officials will get a better idea of whether to open a year-round magnet school when the Achievable Dream program goes year-round in June 2000.

An Achievable Dream is a third- through eighth-grade academy that emphasizes student discipline and responsibility.

"We are trying to find ways to give parents what they want,"Oder said.

Stephanie Barrett can be reached at 247-4740 or by e-mail at sbarrett@dailypress.com